Wiki lists at least 17 people (more or less) with a claim to the title The Fifth Beatle.

Driving home from the Dave Rawlings show a couple of weeks back, I was listening to XM's Sunday night Pink Floyd show, when "Fearless" came on. It's a nice simple tune, and I'm pretty sure there's a banjo lurking in there; so that got me to thinking that it would be an awesome candidate for a straight bluegrass remake. And then I thought, "Hey, I know a banjo player. And the chords sound pretty easy. The words aren't terrible for the context. Maybe I can make this happen!"

And then it hit me that it's probably already been done and that the internet would be full of bluegrass versions. But I was afraid to check because I liked thinking I'd come up with one original idea in my life. So I enjoyed that feeling for a while.

And today I checked.

Just after he said this:

"I think if you have to hit Iran, you don't put boots on the ground. You do it with tactical nuclear devices, and you set them back a decade or two or three...I think that's the way to do it -- with a massive aerial bombardment campaign."

...actual elected representative, Duncan Hunter (R-CA), said this:

"You've got some crazy guys running the governments there."

And somehow the intrepid reporter was able to get this all written down without becoming overcome with the urge to curl up into a weeping ball of despair. Soldier on, brave Caitlin MacNeal.

And this is the week when all of the office microwaves will smell like turkey.

Because I can cook for three days straight!

Bread -> dressing, pie, brine -> turkey, pork & kraut, fixins, etc.. Love it.

Happy Thursday to all.

Shorter Constitutional scholars:

Because the Dems didn't do today what they could've done today, it means they could've done it three years ago, but they didn't because they wanted fixable problems to go unfixed three years in the future! Their perfidy knows no bounds.

A few weeks ago, Pepper stopped jumping up on the bathroom sinks - despite loving to drink out of the faucets. For a while, she would try to jump up but not quite make it; so she just stopped trying. Now, she just stands in front of them and meows. And then she stopped being able to jump up onto the edge of the tub without taking a few practice tries. We thought she was just fat (which the vet always says she is).

And then she started having trouble getting up the stairs, which is bad because the litter box is upstairs.

So, after scaring ourselves by Goolging "cat can't jump anymore", we took her to the vet.

Turns out she isn't considered fat any more - my food rationing worked! But she does have arthritis in her back knees. She's only 6 1/2.

Poor girl.

That TV cooking show guy, Alton Brown, shot the video for REM's "The One I Love" ?

Now you do.

Chatham county NC, animal control §22-406:

No person who is the owner or custodian of any single family residence shall have greater than eight (8) cats, unless all animals are permanently confined to the actual living space of the family residence.

We can keep as many cats as we can confine!

This Is Comfy

Take that, Kevin Drum and your fascist LA three cat maximum !

On a lighter note...

A few weeks ago, my little Fender Vibro Champ XD stopped working. It just faded out in what should have been the middle of an epic rock noodling session. But, since it was pretty cheap when I got it, and it was probably out of warranty, I thought it would cost more to fix it than to replace it. (plus replacing meant I could go spend money at the guitar store!) So, I replaced it with a Fender Mustang I.

Like the Vibro Champ XD, it's a modelling amp - there's a digital processing section before the amplifier that can simulate a bunch of other amps and tons of effects - including some really fun things like auto-wahs, stepping-modulators, pitch-shifters, harmonizers and more delay/echo/reverbs than I could ever use. Unlike the Champ, the Mustang doesn't have a tube amp output section - it's all solid state. But, the Mustang's amp simulation is good enough that it doesn't seem to matter - and I had to really crank the Champ to get the tubes to show themselves, anyway.

It has 24 preset amp/effect combos. And it also has a USB port so you can plug it into your computer, and using the Fender software, create new combinations of amps and effects or download other people's creations. And you can control the amp's settings from your PC, live, while you play. You can even record audio from the USB port into your PC, live.

It has a headphone jack, built-in tuner, and an aux-in port, so you can plug your iPod into it. Being solid state, it weighs almost nothing.

It's really an amazing little thing - especially for just over $100.

And, one of the coolest features is the volume knob's calibration. Unlike any of the other dozen amps I've owned, this volume knob seems designed for home use - the useable low-volume range starts at '1' and goes up until '3' or so. All the other amps have had a low volume range that started at '1' and went to 1.2 or maybe 1.3, with a sharp jump up to HEY, COULD YOU TURN THAT DOWN!? at 1.4.

As an experiment, I bought some new tubes for the Champ, plugged them in and... it works again. So now I have two little Fender modelling amps. I should probably sell the Champ...